The Guardian Post publisher urges gov’t to stop seeing private press as enemy.

The celebrated media manager, daring journalist and media personality, made the appeal, yesterday, while speaking as guest on the state broadcaster, CRTV Midday TV news.

 Ngah was guest on the Midday news to highlight pertinent issues affecting the press in Cameroon. He was blunt that the powers that be must turn a leaf to treat the private press with respect and create an enabling environment that would benefit the country.

The Guardian Post publisher decried what he said is the seeming disdain government has for the private media that is playing a key role in national development and the country’s limping democracy.

Within the sphere of laws regulating the profession, the award-winning and widely travelled journalist called for the decriminalisation of press offences and the institution of an Information Act to give media practitioners access to official information.

“One major problem we have is that of gathering information. We have a tradition in this country where access is allowed only to CRTV, Cameroon Tribune and the Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, CPDM propaganda newspaper, L’Action. Those of us of the private press sometimes have to go searching for news in the corridors of power through the window, because state officials have been groomed to see the private press as the state’s number one enemy,” he bemoaned.

“Our biggest problem”

Ngah, who is also the President of Cameroon English Language Newspaper Publishers’ Association, CENPA, stated that World Press Freedom Day is an “opportunity to call on government to reflect on the way the private press in Cameroon is treated,” declaring that: “The biggest problem we have has to do with adverts. Government sees the private media in Cameroon as an enemy. So, adverts go only to CRTV, Cameroon Tribune and L’Action. We of the private media are both orphaned and trapped”.

Speaking in his capacity as member of the Commission to study application files for government subsidies to the private media in Cameroon, Ngah recalled the pitiful amount government dished out as media aid to over 600 private media organs last year. 

He remarked that: “We, members of the Commission from the private media, had to walk out of the session because less than sixty million FCFA was allocated for more than 600 private media organs in Cameroon. In other countries, billions are allocated”.

Such ‘peanut’ allocation, Ngah maintained, is sickening as it sends a message of the government not being ready to perform its public-service role in supporting the private press.

Weak private media exposed to manipulation

Ngah, who is also the Vice President of the Federation of Cameroon Newspaper Publishers, FEDIPRESSE, averred that the private media in Cameroon is barely surviving.

“With the advent of the social media, newspapers no longer sell on the newsstands. And when someone is desperate, they can go for anything. That is why when you have publishers who are poor like we are today, they can easily be manipulated. We have to be clear on this,” the media industrialist stated.

 Media not free in Cameroon

Situating the difficult climate the private media faces in Cameroon, Ngah, who is member of the Committee that studies the publication of legal notices in Cameroon’s newspapers, regretted that: “We have had cases where journalists are beaten and thrown behind bars for criminal offences relating to media offenses…”

“This is something we have been denouncing. We are calling on government to decriminalise press offenses, without which we can say the media is not free in Cameroon”. 

“Most publishers suffering from greed”

On the recurrent challenge of journalists not being paid, Ngah, who has remained a shining example in paying his staff regularly, said, despite the constraints, there is the possibility to carry media workers along for those who have the goodwill.

He intimated that: “It’s true that we face difficulties, but most of my colleague publishers are suffering from greed. It is not about you alone but about the people who are working for you. I wish to plead with my colleague publishers to give their workers financial support, even its something small that can permit them come to work”.